Debasing Our Military, One Politically Correct Moment After Another

For many years, the military was the last bastion of resistance against the bankruptcy of progressive thinking. No longer. Three vivid illustrations of what those who volunteer to defend this nation must now endure, stand as a beacon to the corruption that political correctness brings wherever it is unleashed. I could not be sadder for those who put themselves in harm’s way. They deserve far better.

First, the Fort Hood massacre. Army brass knew that Major Nidal Hasan was a an Islamic radical, long before he killed 13 and wounded another 32 of his fellow soldiers. A report released soon after the atrocity provided a devastating indictment of political correctness. "Although neither Department of Defense nor the FBI had specific information concerning the time, place or nature of the attack, they collectively had sufficient information to have detected Hasan’s radicalization to violent Islamist extremism, but failed both to understand and to act on it,“ the report stated. It further noted that the Pentagon "possessed compelling evidence that Hasan embraced views so extreme that it should have disciplined him or discharged him from the military, but failed to take action against him,” and that his military officer evaluation reports were “sanitized” to minimize his “obsession with violent Islamic extremism.”

That report was released in February of 2011. Not mentioned were two repugnant realities. The first involved the president of the United States. Despite knowing about the shooting prior to taking the stage at a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian affairs, the president thanked various staffers and offered a “shout-out” to a Congressional Medal of Honor winner. Three minutes later he got around to telling the nation about the slaughter. In a better world, such calculated restraint should have signaled the end of his presidency. In this one, it has long been forgotten.

Even more reprehensible than the president was General George Casey. Even as the wounded were still lying in hospital beds, the Army’s top officer was obsessed with political correctness. "Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse,“ Casey said – two days after the shooting.

More insanity, and a further insult to our men and women in uniform? Rather than characterize this Islamic terrorist attack as what it truly was, the Obama administration's Defense Department labeled it "workplace violence” in a letter released last December. This reveals a simple reality: the maiming and killing of American soldiers is still trumped by the poison of political correctness.

Such poison is amplified by story number two. At Camp Zama in Japan, the Army ordered combat veterans to wear fake breasts and “empathy bellies,” aka “pregnancy simulators" so they can get a better understanding of how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training. The Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders Course, or PPPT, will be expanded worldwide. Each NCO forced to participate in the program must wear the simulator for one hour. "When they first come in, the males are typically timid and don’t feel they have the knowledge to teach female soldiers,” said U.S. Army Medical Activity Japan health promotion educator Jana York. “However, after three days their confidence rises.”

Sgt. Matthew Prout, a 26-year-old member of the 88th Military Police Detachment at Camp Zama, inadvertently put his finger on the inanity of such a program. "My initial view of the Army was just kind of – we train, we fight,“ he said. "But my eyes have been opened up to the family aspects of the Army as opposed to just the single soldier view.”

The family aspects of the Army? The humiliation of “sensitivity training” is more like it. Yet if making a man feel like a women in order to get formerly pregnant soldiers back into shape is considered a necessity, perhaps it is time for women to “understand” what it is like to be a man enduring physical training. Perhaps they too should be forced to “strap on” as it wer.e to fully appreciate what their fellow male shoulders go through.

The most troubling aspect here? The ongoing attempt to turn our fighting forces into a PC-mandated social engineering project. Again in a better world, someone in the chain of command would be forced to offer a cogent explanation as to how and why wearing fake breasts and fake bellies improves combat readiness. Just as troubling is the fact that no one in the chain of command has seen fit to make an issue of humiliating soldiers for sensitivity sake – which may say more about the Army’s current worldview than anything else.

And of course, all of the above must be seen through the lens of having pregnant soldiers in the first place. Forgive one for thinking that getting knocked up while serving one’s country demonstrates a considerable lack of judgment – until one remembers that non-judgmentalism is one of the sacred pillars of political correctness.

Which bring us to our latest insult of America’s fighting forces. The ongoing and obsequious apologies made by president Obama, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commander Gen. John Allen and other members of this administration for burning religious documents in Afghanistan – documents that contained “extremist inscriptions” being used to “facilitate extremist communications” – is nothing short of appalling. Furthermore Gen. Allen has added PC insult to injury: he has ordered all 130,000 coalition troops in the country to “complete training in the proper handling of religious materials” by March 3rd. “I'm going to take steps inside these headquarters to issue an order today on how we will handle religious materials for the faith of Islam, henceforth, by ISAF, so that something like this just cannot happen again,” said the general, who offered repeated apologies to the “noble people of Afghanistan.”

How is such obsequiousness working out? Four American troops have been killed in the ensuing rioting, which, as of this writing, has been going on for five days. At least 25 people have been killed so far – meaning Muslims are killing their fellow Muslims as well. Muslim scholar Robert Spencer explains the bankruptcy of political correctness being disseminated here. "General Allen clearly has no idea how weak and pusillanimous his repeated apologies…will make him appear to many, if not most, of ‘the noble people of Afghanistan,’“ Spencer writes. "He should know enough about Islamic culture to know that it respects strength and sees apologizing and attempts at conciliation as weakness, only to be despised.”

Even more amazing is the fact that no one has disputed that the documents facilitated terrorist communications – which in and of itself represents a defiling of religious documents by Afghans themselves. How this bit of reality has been largely ignored is a testament to an administration, a military chain of command, and a mainstream media doggedly determined to maintain a facade of political correctness around the “religion of peace.” And nothing, not even the deaths of four soldiers, has put an end to the government-mandated groveling. Remember this is the same administration currently negotiating with the Taliban, which brings us to the ultimate PC-inspired insult our soldiers are forced to endure:

Victory against Islamic terrorism has been completely removed from the equation.

For the thousands of Americans who have been killed and wounded, and who volunteered to put their lives on the line, this remains the ultimate defilement of their sacrifice. Those who have subjected some of our finest citizens to the absurdities of the “Rules of Engagement,” “winning heart and minds,” “counter-insurgency,” “nation-building” or any other euphemism used to obscure the utter bankruptcy of politically correct warfare ought to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

Unfortunately, the elimination of shame has been one of the great “victories” that can be directly attributed to political correctness.